Book Summary and Reviews of This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs

This Bird Has Flown

A Novel

by Susanna Hoffs

  • Published:
  • Apr 2023, 368 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

This delightfully funny and steamy novel about music, fate, and love from beloved songwriter and Bangles co-founder Susanna Hoffs is "a total knockout" and "the smart, ferocious rock-star redemption romance you didn't know you needed" (New York Times Book Review).

Jane Start is thirty-three, broke, and recently single. Ten years prior, she had a hit song—written by world-famous superstar Jonesy—but Jane hasn't had a breakout since. Now she's living out of four garbage bags at her parents' house. Rock bottom.

But when her longtime manager Pippa sends Jane to London to regroup, she's seated next to an intriguing stranger on the flight—the other Tom Hardy, an elegantly handsome Oxford professor of literature. Jane is instantly smitten by Tom, and soon, truly inspired. But it's not Jane's past alone that haunts her second chance at stardom, and at love. Is Tom all that he seems? And can Jane emerge from the shadow of Jonesy's earlier hit, and into the light of her own?

In turns deeply sexy, riotously funny, and utterly joyful, This Bird Has Flown explores love, passion, and the ghosts of our past, and offers a glimpse inside the music business that could only come from beloved songwriter Susanna Hoffs.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Hoffs write with a snappy wit that recalls rom-com favorites like Bridget Jones's Diary ... A fun read that's perfect for lovers of pop music, classic books, and romantic comedies." ―Kirkus Reviews

"Hoffs brings her knowledge of the music scene to this lively, spicy love story. Jane is an appealing character whose creative and emotional journeys are relatable and entertaining, and readers will enjoy watching her come into her own after years of struggle and self-doubt. Fans of Emma Brodie's Songs in Ursa Major will want to take a look." ―Booklist

"Elegant, thoughtful, and ever-so-sexy, This Bird Has Flown will stay in your mind—in your heart—like a favorite song." ―Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs

"A tender, funny, love story wrapped in a guitar-jamming rock-and-roll cloak. I haven't had this much fun reading a book in a long, long time." ―Jessica Anya Blau, author of Mary Jane

This information about This Bird Has Flown was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

Boasting one of pop's most beloved voices, Susanna Hoffs graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in Art. In 1981 she co-founded The Bangles, with whom she recorded and released a string of chart-topping singles including "Manic Monday," "Walk Like an Egyptian," "Hazy Shade of Winter," and "Eternal Flame" (which she cowrote), before embarking on a critically acclaimed solo career. She also wrote, recorded music for, and appeared in the Austin Powers movies, and played herself on Season 1 of "The Gilmore Girls." This Bird Has Flown is her first novel. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, filmmaker Jay Roach.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked This Bird Has Flown, try these:

  • Miss Austen jacket

    Miss Austen

    by Gill Hornby

    Published 2021

    About this book

    For fans of Jo Baker's Longbourn, a witty, poignant novel about Cassandra Austen and her famous sister, Jane.

  • Eyrie jacket

    Eyrie

    by Tim Winton

    Published 2015

    About this book

    An exhilarating new book from Australia's most acclaimed writer

  • A Possible Life jacket

    A Possible Life

    by Sebastian Faulks

    Published 2013

    About this book

    From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Birdsong, new fiction about love and war—five transporting stories and five unforgettable lives, linked across centuries.

We have 10 read-alikes for This Bird Has Flown, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!
Win This Book
Win Theo of Golden

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

Enter

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
    by David Woo, Margalit Shinar
    Nine linked stories reveal how globalization sparks life-changing consequences across continents.
  • Book Jacket
    Chelsea Girls
    by Catherine Lloyd
    A glamorous biographical novel on Mary Quant, whose daring design of the miniskirt revolutionized fashion.
  • Book Jacket
    Days of Sun and Shadow
    by India Hayford
    A young woman’s coming-of-age story set in the early American frontier, shaped by tragedy, nature, and resilience.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Summer of Love
    by Kerri Maher
    Three women reshape their family's Napa Valley winery after the 1967 Summer of Love.
  • Book Jacket
    An Infinite Love Story
    by Chanel Cleeton
    “A tender, romantic drama that soars as high as it’s astronauts.” —Kate Quinn
Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

The C is A R

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.